Happy 2016 everyone! Last time I wrote one of these I was sat in St Maarteen airport after a brilliant summer wrestling and about to have another three months away back in the BVI.
If I'm completely honest my mind was a million miles away from wrestling during my time away and there were moments where I was questioning what I should be doing. However, at the end of November I returned and my mind was knocked a million miles back by Grapple tag team champs The Burial and some awesome news from Megaslam wrestling.
Dream Team
For one night El Ligero and JC Thunder (I know it's wanky to speak in the third person, but given my multiple personalities it is also necessary for me sometimes) put their differences aside as we teamed up, along with Ruby Summers, against Grapple tag champs The Burial and Evee Black in Selby.
This match was so much fun! I know everyone so well in this match, which helped. Teaming with and just witnessing a heel (bad!) Ligero was hilarious and I think we managed to be comical yet stay hated effectively. The Burial are brilliant and always improving. I have spoken numerous times about how good David Graves is. This still stands and now even more so. I also got to wrestle against the other Burial member B.A Rose for the first time - who is ultra aggressive, hard-hitting and also excellent. The girls, Ruby and Evee, also did very well. Props to Evee for competing in her first match, even if she did end up getting punched by me (what a dick!).
The end of this match ended controversially, as Ruby supplied some hair spray to the eyes and Ligero picked up a pin over BA Rose. However, we still won and given my NUMEROUS victories over David Graves I'm pretty sure the Grapple Dream Team is now entitled to a tag team title match and that is exactly what is happening at Fibbers, York on 16th January 2016! 'Dream Team' being the name I seemed to like referring to us as on our entrance!
Grapple
It is great to see how everyone continues to improve at Grapple. The show described above was good quality, but a poor house. We have decided to drop that venue. The new place in York is far superior and if current ticket sales are anything to go by should be a good draw too fingers crossed.
I certainly hope it is a good draw, as due to the terrible flooding that hit Yorkshire over Christmas Four-Sided Frank is no more! Four-Sided Frank was the name of our training ring. You might think that's an odd name, but our previous ring had six sides and was female - Six Sided Shirley. Make sense now? No, well it doesn't matter; the point is we need a new ring! So hopefully see you at a Grapple show soon.
Despite the set back of the flood, we have found a great new venue for training located at Fight Science in Leeds. It is amazing looking and big! We still have mats and a boxing ring, so under the tutelage of the legend that is Marty Jones and Ligero, trainees can still expect to receive some of the best training available in the UK.
Also, a big thanks to WWE trainer Dave Taylor for taking time out of his busy schedule and taking a training seminar for us last weekend. A great learning experience and look forward to having him back soon!
Megaslam
The big news of 2016 is, finally after two years of my return, I will be working a fairly full schedule thanks to Megaslam wrestling! This is great news and I am really looking forward to it. So far I have 31 shows for them in January, February and March with many more on the horizon.
I am grateful for this opportunity and feel it has come at the right time. Two years ago I wouldn't have been ready. Now, whilst I still am no where near where I want to be, I have the best possible opportunity to continue to learn and improve and above all else actually do what I wanted to do as a kid on a regular basis and get paid for it!
Final Thoughts
If the summer with Megaslam is anything to go by then this year should be an extremely fun one. I am still not sure entirely where all this wrestling will take me, but I am enjoying the journey to wherever that is.
Grapple's new training facility is great too and now I am back in Leeds I hope to really expand that too.
First show of the year this Saturday as I face El Ligero at Halifax North Bridge Leisure Centre for Megaslam. Hang on, wasn't he my friend a minute ago... I'm so confused! Oh well, Happy New Year everyone!
Thanks for reading!
JCT